Mango Paradise
by Kiba Sniper
Summary: Ponyo and her family explore an uninhabited island. As they travel deeper into the forest, small oddities become quite large much to Ponyo's delight.


This fic was written for Voyage: A travel themed Studio Ghibli zine! All proceeds will go to Helen Keller International. Thank you for having me!

Mango Paradise

"Land ho!"

Koichi's voice echoed over the sputtering engine as his sailboat nudged the golden shoreline. He took off his hat and fanned himself, a grin stretching into his angular cheeks. Fishing out a small map from his backpack, he flipped it open as Lisa ambled closer to him, tugging the collar of her pale violet shirt.

"Oh, good. I was thinking we'd never get here with those winds," she said, streaking her fingers through her short brown hair.

Giving her the map, he gripped the worn, wooden steering wheel and slowly banked the ship deeper into the sand. "Yeah, especially since they started pushing us back home. I'm pretty sure the kids wouldn't like that, and speaking of kids…"

He trailed off, tiny footsteps pounding behind them. Ponyo and Sosuke scampered past them, shooting for the bow. From his spot in the captain's quarters, Koichi chuckled as Ponyo snatched the railing, bouncing up and down, her laughter infectious.

"An uninhabited island, how mysterious. No wonder Ponyo's so excited," he said, and Lisa smoothed the creases out of the map.

"Being on land is still a whole new world for her." She watched him fiddle with the wheel, edging the boat further onto the sand until he felt it was secured. She leaned into the counter and steadied herself, feeling Koichi's arm wreath around her waist. A soft hum pressed against her closed lips, and she kissed his cheek, Ponyo shouting at them to hurry over.

As his parents approached, Sosuke marveled at the island. The shoreline stretched for a mile, untouched by mankind. Massive palm trees towered over them as he and Ponyo barreled off the boat. They seemed to become larger as they darted closer, their footprints sinking into the sand. The leaves fanned out, stretching out to cover the puffy clouds streaming overhead. The generous, cool breeze carried sea salt, and Ponyo breathed in deeply, standing tall on her tiptoes, immersing herself in the familiar soothing scent.

Guarding the forest was a line of shrubbery with magenta flowers rising from every stem. The wind carried their scent, which reminded Sosuke of fresh strawberries. As they hurried towards the flowers, Ponyo laughed and caressed the petals, her eyes twinkling like the jewels the women at the Himawari House wore for the weekend. The temptation to pluck them came and went as Lisa called to them, their beauty sticking with her as she whirled around and clutched Sosuke's hand.

"What kind of flowers are these?" she asked, bobbing her head from side to side.

"They're lavenders. They're mostly found in tepid climates." Lisa crouched, placing her hands on her knees. "Pretty nice, huh, Ponyo?"

"Mm-hm! Look, look!" She knelt, pulling Sosuke with her and pointing to a few smaller orange flowers raising up from the stems. She brushed through the soft petals, astonished by the thin layer of fuzz decorating them. "What are these?"

Lisa tilted her head. "Pretty sure those are part of the lavenders, but I've never seen them grow out of another flower. They're usually the same color, right, honey?"

"Maybe it's a new subspecies of the fauna." Koichi came closer and shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I'm a sailor, not a florist."

Ponyo buried her face in the flowers, inhaling their rich aroma with a deep gasp. She rubbed them against her pudgy cheeks, causing some of them to fall off into her hair. Sosuke snickered, beginning to pull them out until she barreled forward, dragging him along. He stumbled after her, his parents racing after them, their boots stomping into the dirt as Ponyo pulled him through the forest.

He flicked his gaze around, the trees' shadows obscuring the deeper parts of the woods. He smelled honeysuckle and pine, an odd combination considering the island's tropical nature. When he squinted at the trees, they appeared to be a strange blend of pine, citrus, and palm trees, the latter pursuing the sky and blotting out the sun.

Letting go of his hand, Ponyo twirled in place. Laughter squeaked past her teeth. She threw her arms out, dancing on the untrodden path until Lisa scooped her up. Setting her on her shoulders, Lisa sighed as Ponyo kicked out her legs, flicking some sand onto Sosuke's head.

"Let's try to stick together, okay?" Koichi hoisted Sosuke onto his shoulder and patted his leg.

He nodded. "Hey, Dad, why are there so many different trees?"

"Well, the guys at the base said nature ran wild, so I guess many of different trees were able to grow." He itched his neck. "Maybe a bunch of different seeds ended up here, and with such a strange climate like this, a whole lot of unique fauna grew over the years."

"And lots of fruit, too!" Ponyo exclaimed, throwing her finger out in front of them.

"But I don't see any fruit," Sosuke replied, but her dimpled smile remained.

They followed her gaze, stricken with a sweet scent coming from the north. Trekking down the path, crunching through long grass and avoiding scurrying cicadas, they came across a peculiar citrus tree. Long emerald leaves bent down, heavy with the weight of strawberries the size of baseballs clinging to their branches. The ripe fruit swung in the gentle breeze. Seagulls perched on higher branches and pecked at the strawberries, sending a few of them tumbling down towards them. Sosuke threw his hands out, catching one before it could smash into the ground and smiling at Ponyo, he offered it to her.

Eyes widening, she gasped and grasped it. She rubbed her thumbs along it, a few yellow seeds popping out when she poked into it. As juice dribbled down her hands, she chomped into the strawberry, its sweetness unparalleled.

"Is it good?" Sosuke wondered as his father plucked a few more strawberries. Taking them from her husband, Lisa wrapped them in napkins and placed them inside her knapsack.

Ponyo bobbed her head up and down, bits of the strawberry clinging to the corners of her mouth. "So good! Try it, Sos-!"

She cut herself off as if she had bit her tongue, her eyes wide and lips pursed. Sniffing the air, she slowly looked around, mesmerized by something the others couldn't sense. She pointed at the ground, stuffing the rest of the strawberry into her mouth, and when Lisa set her down, Ponyo took a few steps forward before dashing off faster than a lightning bolt through the shrubbery.

"H-hey! Ponyo, wait up!" Sosuke cried, his entire body lurching so quickly that Koichi nearly tumbled into the nearest trees.

As her family hurried after her, Ponyo smiled. She ran deeper into the lush forest, surrounded by leaves the size of her head, their scents becoming more succulent. With every glance, she found a new fruit. Bananas wreathed around the tree bark like vines. Pineapples crowned the bases of bushes and trees, allowing squirrels to gnaw on them only to dart away when Ponyo plowed through. Cherries and blueberries rivaled the size of tennis balls, dropping down into her hands as she lunged over massive roots, but as she gobbled them down, one particular scent remained far more potent than the other sweet aromas emanating from the forest.

Catapulting through a coiling grapevine, Ponyo came out to a clearing. The grapes flew high above her head and fluttered in the breeze before collapsing around her. She dropped her assortment of fruit, ambling forward as if propelled by the wind, and sucking down a deep breath, Ponyo laughed.

"Ponyo!" Sosuke cried as his parents pushed through the grapevine. "Why did you-? Whoa."

All they could do was stare. Before them was a field stretching far and wide with seagrass. It tickled their knees as they stumbled towards Ponyo. In the center of the meadow was a tree so massive that it completely blocked out the sky, swathing them in cool shadows. Claw marks from critters decorated the thick bark like battle scars. Massive leaves mingled with flowers, the green hues complementing the pink bulbs, drawing them closer to inspect the true treats waiting for them.

Lisa reached for her knapsack and slowly looked at her husband, her mouth a small gape as she murmured, "I...don't think I can fit those in here."

With her head barely visible as she thrived in the seagrass, Ponyo threw her arms out and shouted, "Mangoes!"

Hanging from the branches and scattered across the field were ripe, vibrant mangoes. They were the size of beach balls, colored in every shade of the sunset. Ponyo raced up to one of them and leapt onto it, her arms and legs only reaching halfway around it as she rocked back and forth. Uttering a loud battle cry, she chomped into it and hummed, the taste stronger and sweeter than any mango she ever had before.

"The guys back home are not going to believe this," Koichi whispered, taking out his camera from his back pocket. He eased Sosuke down, gesturing for him to go to Ponyo. Raising his camera to his eye, he waited for Sosuke to hobble over to her.

He couldn't stop smiling. Ponyo's laughter infected him as he came closer, his lips creasing into a deep smile. Running his hands over the mango, he hummed over its softness, the fuzzy skin maintaining an airy quality. Peering up at Ponyo, he giggled as she buried her face back into the mango, gnawing deeper into the fruit and spitting out a particularly large seed.

Koichi's camera flashed. Leaning back, he continued taking snapshots as Lisa skipped ahead, sitting on another giant mango as Ponyo and Sosuke continued tearing off chunks. Rubbing her neck as egrets crooned overhead, she sighed, lifting her gaze to the tree and watched the massive mangoes shuddering in the wind.

"Okay, I've got the timer set up!" Koichi tore open his backpack and yanked out a short tripod. He dug it into the ground and extended it, placing his camera on top. Darting behind his wife, he kicked up a few stray pieces of seagrass and clapped her shoulders. Pecking her cheek, he crouched next to her and exclaimed, "Saaay mango!"

"Mangooo!" Ponyo and Sosuke cried, the former quickly latching onto him as the flash went off. Laughing as they toppled into the seagrass, Lisa and Koichi snickering with them, they beamed at each other, the peaceful island trip far more special than anything they could have imagined.


End file.
